Daily Digest, September 20, 2026: In Writing — Training First, Plaintiffs Only, and 298 Refusals in Two Days

For ten days applicants have inferred a pattern from who was and was not being called. On 18 September the government put it in writing. This issue covers Wednesday noon to Saturday noon. The accounts of court filings are secondhand, and we have not read the documents ourselves.

What the status report says

The 18 September report in the diversity visa case reportedly states that headquarters instructed posts that they generally may not resume immigrant visa processing until they complete public-charge training. The only exception is for named plaintiffs in four suits. The department says it is reviewing that instruction for compliance with the court's order. That paragraph explains the last ten days: the silence at most posts, and callbacks that all turned out to be plaintiffs.

The numbers in the same report are the first with outcomes attached. In two days, posts scheduled about 574 more diversity visa re-interviews, held 261 of them plus 33 first interviews, approved 51 cases for issuance, and refused 298. That is roughly six refusals for every approval. The figures are manually compiled, subject to revision, and cover diversity visa cases, not family cases. They are still the only measured output of the new public-charge review that exists.

What a plaintiff's re-interview looked like at Dhaka

A diversity visa plaintiff re-interviewed at Dhaka on 17 September reports every document from the first interview checked again, finances examined closely, and proof of property ownership requested. The officer said the new system had what it needed and that the decision was not hers. The passport was kept because of the deadline, and CEAC moved from Refused to Ready the next day, with no decision. Six other plaintiffs interviewed that morning were handed a new 221(g) slip and their passports. Separately, a reader relays that two family cases at the same post, interviewed in February and April, were told to redo the medical and then submit the passport with no second interview. The same reader later said they could not confirm those applicants were not plaintiffs.

An interview nobody can reach

Warsaw emailed a Russian spouse-visa applicant, interviewed in May and refused under the pause, an additional interview for 21 September, in a message written for diversity visa applicants. She needs a Schengen visa to enter Poland, which takes about a month, and the post told a caller it is not rescheduling immigrant interviews. At Tunis, a diversity visa applicant who is not a plaintiff has a second interview this week with a request to show means of support, and the host named on the application cannot provide documents.

The calendar

The government has told the court it will ask the appeals court for a stay on 25 September if the judge has not ruled; the plaintiffs' opposition is not due until the 28th, and they have filed to say the urgency is manufactured after a month's delay. In a parallel suit a judge refused to pause the case behind the appeal. The public-charge bond form now carries a field for a consular case number, which suggests a bond may become an alternative to refusal.

Where the numbers stand

Eighty-one cancellation reports across 27 posts, with Tbilisi and Paris new; Paris issued a replacement date. Fifty-two were September appointments and three have replacement dates. Ten confirmed pairs, and the first of them has reached a visa: Warsaw, cancelled 24 August, interviewed 2 September, passport back on the 7th. Nine records added and one updated in Saturday's collection; nothing new was gathered today. The figures are crowdsourced and anonymised; they describe what people chose to report.